ASSE and OSHA Meet to Discuss Risk Management Issues
On November 21, 2011, an ASSE delegation consisting of President Terrie Norris, Jim Newberry, Thad Nosal, Manager of Gov’t Affairs and Policy Dave Heidorn and ASSE’s Federal Representative Adele Abrams met at OSHA headquarters with OSHA staff members that included Assistant Secretary David Michaels, Glenn Shor of the California Division of Workers’ Compensation who is on special assignment to work on insurance industry issues for the Assistant Secretary; Tom Galassi, Director of the Office of Enforcement; OSHA economist Bob Burt; Eric Lahaie of the Office of Cooperative Programs; Amy Wangdahl, Bill Donovan who leads enforcement in OSHA’s Region V by conference call; and Ann Rosenthal from the Office of the Solicitor.
As the memorandum describing the meeting indicates, its purpose was to discuss ASSE member interest in OSHA efforts to work with the insurance industry to help advance workplace safety and health, including the Agency’s efforts to see if wider access to workers compensation data can help measure the quality of employer injury and illness reporting and issues concerning insurer safety and health reports arising from the Grinnell case (http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=19815) with the overall intention of determining if there were opportunities for ASSE, its members in risk management and OSHA to work together cooperatively.
Among the variety of issues discussed, OSHA explained in detail its long-standing self audit policy, which can be found at http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=FEDERAL_REGISTER&p_id=16434, and its view that the Grinnell litigation does not represent a change in the way the Agency interacts with insurers in seeking safety and health reports. OSHA was also very interested in hearing from the ASSE members their perspective in working with insurers and insureds in helping advance safety.
In the end, the discussion resulted in an intent to explore the possibility of further discussion with ASSE risk management members as well as opportunities to share information about OSHA’s efforts to work with the insurance industry through ASSE.